Search engines can be used to locate documents from a large collection of documents, such as documents stored on a computer or in a distributed database, such as the World Wide Web (WWW) or an intranet. Search engines can compile and organize an index of documents by crawling or reading documents, such as web pages. Generally, such indexes are organized so that the index associates the contents of the documents, such as words and images, with the respective documents. The search engine can locate documents in response to a search query by matching terms or partial terms from a search query with the contents of the documents. A search result set generated by a search engine in response to a search query generally contains links to previously indexed documents.
Some users of search engines may be searching for specific information, such as a date or the name of a person or a place. If a user enters a search query for a specific information item in a search engine, the search engine may generate a search result set containing links to previously indexed documents. The search result set may contain a summary or snippet of each document. While the summaries or snippets may be based on the search query, they may not contain the user's desired specific information item. This may require the user to select (or “click on”) several of the documents cited in the search result set and review the documents to find the information sought. Reviewing documents linked to in a search result set to identify the specific information item may be cumbersome and time consuming for the user.